Etihad aims to fly to more Indian cities

New Delhi, Sep 3: Etihad Airways has set its sights on eight cities in India for new air services from its base in Abu Dhabi.

Its chief executive James Hogan spent two days here recently meeting Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel and senior government officials to press the airline's view that there is a burgeoning yet unfulfilled demand for flights between India's emerging cities and capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Etihad is currently constrained by an inter-government bilateral air treaty to operate just 28 flights a week from the UAE to India.

Mr Hogan said Etihad's eight city wishlist for new services from Abu Dhabi are: Bangaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Calicut, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Jaipur and Kolkata.

''There is a huge demand for air travel between the UAE and India and that desire is set to grow further as Abu Dhabi's ambitious property and infrastructure developments move ahead,'' he said.

''Liberalisation of aviation markets is bringing multiple benefits for both consumers and regional economies alike and I hope that Etihad Airways will be granted access to the emerging cities of India,'' said Mr Hogan. Etihad currently operates daily flights from Abu Dhabi to the commercial capital Mumbai and national capital New Delhi and three-flights-per-week to Thiruvananthapuram and four to Kochi.

Both Kerala routes will increase to daily flights from October, bringing the number of weekly services flown by Etihad from Abu Dhabi to India to its ceiling of 28 flights.

There are 655 Indian companies currently registered in Abu Dhabi and 400,000 non-resident Indians live in the emirate.

UNI